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Mountains 

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THE 

WHITE MOUNTAINS 

OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 

In the Heart of the 
Nation's Playground 



Boston and Maine Railroad 

J. H. HUSTIS, Temporary Receiver 



ISSUED BY THE 



PASSENGER TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 

1917 




Mt. Washington from Bretton Woods 



' 




We •• 




On the Road to Whitefield 



THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 

Vacation Land's Scenic Treasure 

Here is a country that lifts the tired mortal out of all contact 
with the cares and worries and drudgeries that have been left in the 
hot and noisy city, but a few hours before. 

Here are the requirements that go to make up a vacation to be 
remembered and repeated: — varied as those requirements are. 

In the White Mountains the visitor will find these complete. From 
the A of accommodations to the Z of zest with which vacation days 
are enjoyed there is nothing lacking in this breezy, germ-free, wide- 
spaced, sky-communing land of summer delight that soothes and heals 
and builds up tissue and brain-cell — and satisfies. 

And, after all, it is satisfaction, in vacation as in life itself, that 
is the chief desire of humanity. 




Georgiana Kails. North Woodstock 




Elephants Head and Mt. Webster 



From the standpoint of beauty, healthfulness and pure enjoy- 
ment, there is no section in the East to compare with the White Mountain 
region. 

What is most notable, and perhaps the least appreciated about it, 
is the fact that this region of amazing vacation resources is within 
twenty hours' journey of the homes of thirty million people. 

If this were being written twenty-five or fifty years ago, it would, 
in all probability, deal almost wholly with the scenic attributes of the 
White Mountain region — the phase that Thomas Starr King and 
Samuel Adams Drake and the long line of other illustrious word-painters 
loved to describe. 

In those days there was not much else to write about; but to-day 
it is different, for life has come to the New England Highlands — life 
that fills their echoing valleys with the laughter of the strong-lunged 
and care-free; that effervesces on golf-course, tennis-court and baseball 



field: that scintillates in gorgeously illuminated lobby and ballroom; 
that sprawls along interminable miles of range-encircling trails, and 
makes its presence felt in a score of thriving centers whose existence 
was as little foreseen by old Abel Crawford and the ill-fated Willey 
family as was the coming of the first motor car. 

These pages are likely to have as much to say concerning what 
the summer visitor does as what he sees from lofty mountain top or 
sunken floor of notch or ravine. Unchangeable is the scenery of the 
Mountains, but the human equation changes ever. 

Filling the northern corner of the picturesque "Granite State'' 
with their four-hundred-and-odd square miles of cloud-saluting peaks, 
this wonderful group of the Appalachian system challenges the atten- 
tion of America's millions from the geographical, the scenic and the 
social point of view. That the region was given its conformation and 







Bridge over Saco River, Crawford Notch 




Rugged Chocorua 



placed there by the Great Architect as a place of refuge for the wearied 
hosts who were by and by to people the busy cities and towns of America 
is a conclusion difficult to escape. Certainly it is Nature's own sana- 
torium, where even the modern hay-fever victim may count on finding 
sure relief. 

Mountains with their intervening valleys and basins are to be 
counted by the score. There are at least forty with an altitude of 
more than 4,000 feet, and eleven whose height above sea level exceeds 
5,000 feet. The king of this royal company, famous Mt, Washington, 
rears itself to an altitude of 6,290 feet, with all the stately grandeur 
of the illustrious American for whom it was named. It is upon its 
lofty summit that the ridgepole of eastern America is found; and to 
stand there and gaze around the hundred-mile radius of propsect is 
to make one feel as though he were on the roof of the world with the 
stars for his nearest neighbor. 




Assaquam Brook, Crawford 




The First Drive At Waumbek 



And, best of all, these Mountains and their attractive foothills 
are clothed with something like 2,000,000 acres of forests, hiding many 
of the loveliest waterfalls, most picturesque streams and remarkable 
geological freaks to be found in the open pages of Nature's book. 

Through these sinuous valleys and notches wind miles and miles 
of the finest highways to be found on the continent, offering rare in- 
ducements to those who enjoy motoring or driving, and athwart the 
precipitous slopes of the Mountains themselves and along their con- 
necting ridges run ribbon-like trails for those who love to tramp the 
glorious hills, their evening couch perchance a handful of fir boughs 
and their canopy a cotton shelter tent, or perhaps the open sky itself. 

It is a sort of grown-up fairyland, this White Mountain region, 
each turn of a road or path, or each achievement of a summit revealing 
some new and wonderful spectacle or experience. The stimulating, 
sustaining mountain air, tinctured with the largest of the balsam growths, 
the wonderful clarity of the atmosphere, the surpassing glory of the 



sunsets and sunrises, the wraith-like effects of fog and cloud on moun- 
tain top and in valley, the weird and enchanting moonlight pictures, 
and the harmonious, enlivening and wholesome social life of the hotels 
and summer colonies together form such a magnetic combination that 
one learns without surprise that there are regular visitors to the Moun- 
tains who have been spending their summers there continuously for 
thirty and forty years. 

In the White Mountains to-day every highway, be it of steel or 
earth, leads, directly or indirectly, to Mt. Washington. This is the 
Mt. Blanc of the New England Switzerland, the hub of the vacation 
world. It is entirely fitting to enter upon a brief consideration of the 
White Mountains and their summer joys by utilizing Mt. Washington 
as the starting-point, for if one does not start from there, he is sure to 
eventually reach there. 

It is because of this fact that Mt. Washington is the center of 
the Mountains that Bretton Woods has come into existence as the chief 




Bret ton Woods Links are Sporty and Sightly 




Stickney Memorial Chapel, Bretton Woods 



resort of wealth and fashion in the region. It is to the White Moun- 
tains what Bar Harbor is to Maine or St. Augustine to Florida. 

When the great million-and-a-half-dollar palace hotel at Bretton 
Woods, the "Mount Washington," is aglow at night with its 5,000 
incandescent lamps, there is an indoor scene comparable in brilliancy to 
a reception to the diplomatic corps at the White House or a levee at 
the Court of St. James. The "Mount Washington" is pioneer of a 
succession of other vacation-season palaces whose walls continue to 
uprear themselves in the White Mountains. 

But Bretton Woods, with its dress parade of millionaires, its en- 
chanting scenery, its 1,600 feet of altitude, its wonderful golf-course 
and its prismatic social life, has by no means a monopoly in the Moun- 
tains. It is merely a symptom. 

Near neighbor of Bretton Woods stands historic Fabyan, of de- 
lightful memory to two generations of White Mountain devotees. It 



is one of the most attractive, as well as the most accessible, of the 
Mountain resorts, and the views of Mt. Washington and the Presi- 
dential Range it affords are among the most satisfying in the region. 
As a center of White Mountain drives, rail excursions and tramping 
trips. Fabyan is without a peer. 

There are other places — many of them — where one can enjoy just 
as good a time, according to one's taste or means — resorts like Bethle- 
hem, Maple wood, Profile House, Jefferson, Littleton, North Woodstock, 
Crawford, Franconia, Sugar Hill, Randolph, Gorham, North Conway, 
Intervale, Jackson, Whitefield, Dixville Notch and others to be men- 
tioned later. Each of these places has its own local attractions and 
associations, and to a large extent its own clientele. The same mag- 
nificent air, the same superb scenery, the identical outdoor activities 
are shared by each and all of these resorts, and in effect they are units 
of one big and ever-growing vacation family, indulging in friendly 




Through Franconia Notch 



Swimming Pool, Ammonoosuc River 

rivalries on the baseball diamond or tennis-court and exchanging social 
visits when the spirit moves. And the spirit moves with oft-recurring 
regularity. 

The summer vacation season in the Mountains (there is nowadays, 
by the way, a winter vacation season there, too) begins about the last 
week in June, although some of the larger houses do not open until 
somewhat later. At Bethlehem, Maplewood, Profile House, Jefferson, 
Bretton Woods, Crawford, Fabyan, Twin Mountain, North Woodstock, 
North Conway, Jackson, Dixville Notch and elsewhere some of the 
leading hotels are ready to receive guests about June fifteenth, and 
of late years the custom of spending the Fourth of July in the Moun- 
tains has been followed by many. 

No more effective and sensible method of escaping the noise and 
heat of the Glorious Fourth could possibly be adopted. The quick 
transition from city clamor to Mountain quiet is almost miraculous. 



The noise of the celebration is far less trying because of that impressive 
silence in which it is so easily lost. 

Shortly after Independence Day the regular summer visitors begin 
to put in an appearance at the various Mountain resorts. Panting 
locomotives draw them in long trainloads up through the wonderful 
fifteen-mile Crawford Notch; big delegations of them drop off the 
trains at North Woodstock, and hundreds swing round the south- 
western frontier of the Mountains and disembark at Bethlehem, 
Maplewood. Jefferson or whatever point on the West Side they are 
booked for. 

By the first of August the hotels begin to take on the appearance 
of a London 'bus on a bank holiday, and throughout this ideal month 
the summer life is at crescendo. The younger members of the big 
summer colony are in an hourly whirl of delicious excitement — golfing, 
driving, fishing, motoring, disporting in swimming-pools, playing base- 




Golf Club, Profile House 




Good Courts Draw the Enthusiast 



ball, tennis or squash, rowing, sailing (for you can row and sail in some 
parts of the Mountains), enjoying picnics and hay rides, camping out, 
photographing, sketching, playing croquet, billiards or bridge, enjoying 
concerts or theatricals — in short, having a good time, as only those 
who summer in the White Mountains can enjoy one. For their elders, 
there are plenty of less exacting recreations, and failing all else, there 
is always the inspiring and satisfying scenery to enjoy — for the White 
Mountain scenery is genial and soothing, and lacks the austerity that 
marks some of the mountain scenery of the far West. 

Life goes on much like this until the middle of October, for the 
season, once ending with August, has a tendency to lengthen a little 
every year, so loath are the lovers of the Mountains to leave their 
splendid sanatorium. 

In considering the varied list of possible outdoor pastimes in this 
playground of the millions, it is rather difficult to decide which excels in 



popular favor. It will, however, be entirely safe to place the royal 
game of golf near the head of the list, for in no part of the country 
are the facilities for indulging in this popular sport more extensive 
than in the White Mountains. Some of the finest courses in America 
are to be found here, and, needless to say, some of the most celebrated 
players in the world follow the elusive ball over their velvety acres. 

There are at least a score of such courses in various parts of the 
White Mountain territory, of which five are eighteen-hole courses — 
those at Bretton Woods, Maplewood, Bethlehem, The Balsams and 
Jefferson. There are nine-hole courses at Crawford House, Jackson, 
North Conway, Fabyan, Twin Mountain, Profile House, Sugar Hill, 
Whitefield and Franconia. 

Some of these are maintained by the hotels, while others are under 
the control of local clubs, as in the case of Bethlehem and Jefferson. 
Each course has its own characteristics, while in combination they 




Coifing Two Thousand Feet Above the Sea 



. 













. 




A Country Lane, Whitefield 




The Links at Sugar Hill 



supply every requirement of sporty play. In point of sheer pictur- 
esqueness, there are few golf-links in the United States that are to be 
compared with those at Maplewood. The new clubhouse at The 
Balsams affords a view unsurpassed in New England; while the Bretton 
Woods course, from its peculiar situation in the great mountain-walled 
basin that forms the resort, is entirely unique. 

The Bretton Woods course is distinctive in one other respect, and 
that is the number and discipline of its caddies. These are a battalion 
of some sixty bright boys annually brought up from Boston, carefully 
trained and drilled for the work and handled by their instructors in 
all their various comings and goings on semi-military principles. 

As a rule, the various professional and amateur tournaments at 
Bretton Woods, Maplewood, Jefferson and the other more important 
resorts are among the most spectacular outdoor events of the season 
in the Mountains. 



It is by no means an uncommon event for more than one hundred 
golfers to play over the Bretton Woods course in a single day. 

Tennis is an outdoor sport that has an ineradicable hold in this 
section, and there are a number of excellent courts, but none is more 
enchantingly located, nor more famous throughout the country than 
that at Crawford House, at the very gateway of the marvelous Crawford 
Notch. 

At the annual tennis tournament here, players and devotees of the 
game flock from every hotel in the Mountains, and the picture pre- 
sented by players and fashionably attired spectators on a fine August 
afternoon is a particularly brilliant one. There are frequently fifty 
or more entries, with some of the most expert players in the country 
in the lists. The result of these annual tournaments is always regarded 
as one of the most important bits of published athletic intelligence 
of the day. 




Title Matches at Crawford are Well Attended 




The Pinch Hitter 



The friendly rivalry between leading hotels and centers in the 
Mountains, which serves to accentuate the interest of summer life 
therein, finds its chief safety-valve in baseball matches, however. 
Practically every center in the Mountains has its local team of no 
mean caliber, and exciting, indeed, are some of the contests that take 
place between them. From the beginning the national game has always 
been popular in the White Mountains, and from the Glorious Fourth 
until the last trainload of summer visitors has departed, the players 
and "fans" are in daily action all over the region. 

In tennis, golf and the other conventional pastimes, women, of 
course, participate extensively; and those who do not golf or wield 
the racket may well be devotees of horse-back riding, one of the most 
popular and delightful exercises possible in the Mountains. 

For those who do not bring their own mounts, as many do, there 
are splendid liveries at all of the leading centers and, in addition. 



riding-masters and instructors of national renown. The entire White 
Mountain country, with its magnificent highways and its fine bridle- 
paths, offers exceptional opportunities for riding under the most de- 
lightful conditions of climate and scenery, and no more body-building 
and muscle-hardening pastime can be indulged in. 

\t some of the resorts there are also bowling-greens maintained, 
where this fine old sport may be enjoyed by its lovers; and clock golf 
is also on the list. At Bretton Woods water sports are frequently 
held, the great swimming-pool at "The Mount Washington" making 
this possible, as well as furnishing the visiting vacationists a most 
excellent substitute for a morning or afternoon dip in the sea. Dashes, 
under-water races, diving and tub races are included, the Bretton 
Woods caddies having an excellent opportunity to display their natatorial 
talents here. 

Driving, of course, is one of the perennially popular pastimes 
throughout the White Mountains; and these expeditions may be made 




Bethlehem Coif Club 




Boy's Camp, Upper Falls, Ammonoosuc River 



delightful outings of several days' duration such as have become popu- 
lar in California and Colorado, and in competition with which the 
automobile has no part. It is no uncommon thing for a large party 
of congenial spirits to start out in tallyhos or Mountain wagons from 
one of the big hotels, accompanied by chef and chaperone, and be gone 
the greater part of a week, visiting where they will among the important 
centers of interest in the Mountains, reveling in the wonderful scenery 
and bracing air, and camping out at night in true gypsy style, if the 
weather is propitious. Smaller parties sometimes enjoy the same 
nomadic experiences in motor-cars, for the hotels have up-to-date 
garages as well as liveries. 

Then there is the combined carriage and railroad one-day trip, 
which enables the sojourner at almost any of the score or more of White 
Mountain resorts to visit the summit of Mt. Washington, explore 
the wonders of Crawford Notch, or gaze with awe upon the stern features 




Humphrey's Ledge, North Conway 



of the Old Man of the Mountains, returning home in time for 
dinner, — that all-important factor in vacation life in the Mountains 
as elsewhere. 

Broadly speaking, one may nowadays, through the aid of the 
railroads — standard-gauge, narrow-gauge and cog — get from any- 
where to anywhere else in the Mountains and back again in a period 
but a little longer than that usually devoted to a day's business in 
office or bank. One can more easily climb a mountain than was the 
case a quarter of a century ago, for the way has been made easier and 
safer through the good offices of the modern trail-builder. 

Nor does the foregoing by any means exhaust the list of possi- 
bilities in the line of outdoor pastimes in the Mountains. Rather it 
is only a beginning. Think what wonderful worlds there are awaiting 
the conquering approach of the tramper. Weston in his pedestrian 
journeys across the continent did not quaff of half the joys that await 
the outdoor explorer in the White Mountains. 




Saco Lake and Presidential Range 




The "Old Man of the Mountains' 




Presidential Range from Whitefield 



Most impressive about the White Mountains is scenic beauty. It 
does not matter from which side one approaches, every effect is satis- 
fying. And the longer one remains the more attractive the picture 
becomes. It is new every hour of each day, with the changing cloud 
effects, and the varying angles to which each view may be subjected. 
Although the area included within the mountain territory exceeds four 
hundred square miles yet the section is so connected by railroad, and 
contains so many fine roads and clearly defined trails, as to make each 
part easily accessible from every other. And while the beauties of 
the region are hidden from no one who enters its famous portals, the 
full glory of its possibilities is revealed most completely to him who 
leaves the broad highway and tramps the trails in pursuit of his pleasure. 
To him there is the finest of exercise, in the purest of air, by day, and 
restful, health-building sleep by night. Clear skies and fine outlooks 
are wonderful, while storms and fogs are no less wonderful and im- 
mensely impressive. The problem of food and sleep is easily met by 



the owners of the farmhouses, if one is away from the hotel district. 
There is no Mountain summit, notch, ravine, valley, lake, stream, 
ice cave, ridge, gulf, overlook, precipice, waterfall, village, lumber 
camp or hermit's hut that the tramper cannot reach or explore. Lost 
rivers are lost no more when he takes the trail; and even winter, with 
its five or six feet of snow and its temperature of 25 degrees below zero, 
has no terrors for him, for he simply dons his snowshoes, like the Craw- 
fords of old and the Indians before them, and even the ice-bound crown 
of Mt. Washington itself is his, if he so wills. 

The Department of Agriculture, acting under the provisions of 
the so-called Weeks Law, has established a National Forest in New 
Hampshire, with headquarters at Gorham. 

The National Forests are the great recreation grounds of the 
Nation. The White Mountain National Forest includes the central 
White Mountain region, embracing all of the higher ranges and moun- 




Mt. Webster from Mt. Willard 




Carter Notch, Fire Warden's Camp, within the National Forest 



tain peaks, among which rise the main tributaries of the most impor- 
tant rivers of New England, the Connecticut, the Androscoggin, the 
Merrimac, and the Saco. 

All National Forests are public property, maintained for the benefit 
of the public. They are open to every kind of use and occupancy 
which does not reduce their value to the community or conflict with 
the principle of equal rights for all. 

Their primary purpose is to provide a self-renewing timber supply 
and a regulated streamflow. 

Camping, hunting, fishing, and trapping in the Forests 
are free. 

The advent of Uncle Sam in the role of proprietor of the hills has 
given a tremendous impetus to the playground idea. His coming 
is a token of liberty to roam without fear of the trespass laws. Through 
the co-operation of the Government's Forest Service and the moun- 




Millbrook Cascade at Thornton 



taineering clubs, the White Mountains are soon to be to New England 
what the Black Forest has long been to Germany, a forest and a rec- 
reation ground combined, and the problem of catering to this phase 
of vacationing is already pressing for solution. The Appalachian 
Mountain Club has now open three shelters, with more in contempla- 
tion. The Madison Stone Hut is the oldest. It lies between Mts. 
Adams and Madison, and is reached by direct paths from Appalachia 
Station, Randolph. Then there is the Carter Notch Stone Hut, which 
lies between Carter Dome and Wildcat. One reaches it on the Jack- 
son or Glen House Trails. The newest of these shelters is The Lakes 
of the Clouds Hut, which was dedicated August 7, 1915. It is located 
on a spur of Mt. Washington, near the Crawford Bridle Path. 

Until the schemes now on foot are perfected by the Appalachian 
Club and the Forest Service, much primitive camping must be done 
by those who respond to the call of the wanderlust. All the Forest 




Down the Glen from Mt. Washington 




Golf at The Maplewood 



Ranger will ask of the camper, however, is that he clean up his camp 
site and carefully put out every ember of his camp-fire. Later huts 
and cabins, providing bunks and food, and connected with each other 
by telephone, will be established. Then will this Forest be the ideal 
of the tramp de luxe. 

The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture explains 
the purpose and use of the National Forest in the following 
terms : 

"The White Mountain National Forest is the largest of sixteen 
National Forests in the East whose creation was made possible through 
the passage by Congress in 1911 of the so-called Weeks Law, which 
provided for the acquisition of forest lands for the protection of the 
watersheds of navigable streams. In addition to the primary object 
of the law, the establishment of National Forests in the East is 
of importance because of the provision which is made for the con- 
tinuance of a timber supply to meet the demands of the industries of 



the region, and for the preservation of the beauty and attractive- 
ness of the uplands for the recreation and pleasure of the American 
people. 

"The White Mountain National Forest area consists of about 827,600 
acres in Coos, Carroll and Grafton counties in New Hampshire, and 
projects slightly into the adjoining State of Maine. Its boundaries 
embrace nearly all of the mountain country from the Pliny Range on 
the north to Sandwich Dome on the south, and from beyond the Maine 
State line on the east nearly to the Connecticut River on the west. It 
contains numerous mountains which reach a height of over 4000 feet 
and the loftiest of these, Mount Washington, rises to an altitude of 6,290 
feet above sea level, and is one of the highest mountains of the Appa- 
lachian system. 

"The region is essentially a forest country containing considerable 
areas of primeval forest as well as a large amount of other land from 




The Old Toll Gate, Glen, N. H. 




Israel River, Cherry Mountain 



which the timber has been removed. Some of this has been badly 
damaged by forest fires. The preservation of forest conditions has 
long been regarded as absolutely necessary, not only by the Federal 
Government but by the State and local organizations interested in pre- 
serving the picturescme woods for which the region is noted. If unpro- 
tected from fire and careless timber cutting, it would soon lose much of 
its attractiveness, and the disastrous effects on the streams which flow 
from its lofty ranges would be almost incalculable. 

"The watersheds of four of the most important rivers of New 
England — the Connecticut, the Androscoggin, the Merrimac and the 
Saco — lie in part within the White Mountain Area, of which the Federal 
( i< >\ eminent has already purchased, or is acquiring 360,000 acres. Other 
purchases are being made as rapidly as possible, and according to the 
working plan of the National Forest Reservation Commission most of 
the 827,600 acres will in time become National Forest. 



"As rapidly as the land is acquired it is placed under administration 
in the same way as is done in the case of the larger National Forests in 
the West. Primarily the Forests are protected from fire and other de- 
structive agencies. The scenic beauty of this region, its valuable timber 
and the influence of the Forest in regulating the stream flow are all more 
or less dependent on the protective measures made effective by Govern- 
ment ownership. The many miles of trails which the Government found 
already made when it acquired the land facilitate the constant patrol 
necessary during the dry seasons when the danger of forest fires is great. 
In co-operation with the State of New Hampshire, watchmen are sta- 
tioned during the summer season on commanding peaks having an ex- 
tended view of the surrounding country. These lookout stations, as 
they are called, are usually connected by telephone with the valleys in 
order that the lookout man may quickly report the location of any fire 
which may occur, and secure the necessary assistance to extinguish it. 




Above the Clouds, Summit Mt. Washington 




Presidential Range 



■ 





uckerman's Ravine 



"Many people still think of the National Forests as reserves, and 
believe that their resources are 'locked up,' but this is a mistaken idea. 
The National Forests are not reserves in that sense of the word. Their 
resources are for wise use and are developed along lines which will con- 
tribute most to the upbuilding of the localities in which they are situated 
and to the needs of the nation. In allowing any use of the primary 
question to be decided is, of course, whether it will interfere with the 
purpose for which the Forests have been created. The White Mountain 
National Forest contains a large amount of valuable timber. The 
mature timber is sold to private operators at a price that will allow them 
a fair return on their investments. In contrast to the usual methods of 
stripping the mountain slopes of all the trees, however, the operators 
are required to cut only the trees marked by the Forest Officer. This 
marking is done by experienced men in such a way that a future crop of 
timber is assured and at the same time the scenic beauty of the forest is 




A Typical Summer Home of Simple Construction, Attractively Located in the White Mountains 




The Flume, North Woodstock 




A View of Mt. Madison from One of the Available Summer Home Sites 
on Government Land in the White Mountains 



preserved. On portions of especial scenic interest, no cutting is allowed 
at all. The same principle applies to other uses. 

"The establishment of the White Mountain Forest performs a most 
important public service in providing a playground for the people, and 
its use for all sorts of outdoor recreation is encouraged. The trails, 
whether constructed by the Forest Service or by outing organizations, 
are open to the public, and these trails make accessible the most beautiful 
parts of this region and offer opportunities for many interesting tramping 
trips. 

"The Forest is covered by a network of good roads, including many 
miles of State highway all suitable for motor travel, and the tourist can 
always find accommodations at the numerous hotels, inns and boarding 
houses within or near the National Forest. A very useful guide map of 
the White Mountain region, together with instructions and information 
for tourists, campers and others, can be obtained by writing to the Forest 
Supervisor at Gorham, New Hampshire. 




Looking Off from Gulfside Trail 



"Government ownership has given new impetus to recreational 
development of the region. Under the system of special-use permits 
which is in force on all the National Forests, the public may use the land 
in any way that is compatible with its proper protection and adminis- 
tration. Persons who wish to maintain camps on the Forest may do so 
under a short-term permit or they may take advantage of the law which 
provides that National Forest land may be leased in tracts of five acres 
or less for periods not exceeding thirty years for permanent summer 
homes. There are many sites in accessible and, if desired, in relatively 
inaccessible locations which are suitable for camps, cottages, resorts, 
hotels, and stores, and which may be obtained from the Government at 
rates ranging from $12 a year up. 

"Until recently, this region was celebrated only as a delightful sum- 
mering place. Within the past few years, however, such a keen and active 
interest has been taken in the winter sports that there is every indication 




Snowcovered Peaks of Presidential Range 




Beautiful Lakes are Near at Hand 



that it will soon be almost as popular as a winter resort. The wonderful 
opportunities for skiing, snowshoeing, tobogganing, skating, and sleigh- 
ing are bringing in increasing numbers every year people who enjoy these 
unique and delightful winter sports. Annual midwinter tours by mem- 
bers of outing clubs, students of universities and schools are now perma- 
nent features in the White Mountains, and these outings are becoming 
more and more popular each year. 

"In the development of the recreational opportunities of the region, 
the preservation of its scenic beauty and its valuable timber, the co-op- 
eration of both the local inhabitants and the visitor is needed. The 
Forest Service extends many privileges to the public. Camping, fishing, 
hunting, snowshoeing and other pleasures may be enjoyed; one need 
only comply with the laws of the State and the regulations of the De- 
partment of Agriculture. In return, the public is expected to take the 
simple precautions necessary to protect the timber, prevent stream 




Echo Lake, Franconia Mountains 



> 


T^i*,, 






> »»r ~«W«^ 






■ 


*a» 



Lake Gloriette, Dixville Notch 



pollution, and forest fires, and to co-operate in keeping camp sites, 
trailsides and roadsides in neat and attractive condition." 

Men and women, boys and girls, alike in these days tramp the 
Mountains for days and miles with the perseverance of Irocmois and 
the nonchalence of gypsies, getting from their glorious experience a 
hardening of flesh, a brightness of eye and a bronzing of skin that might 
well have been the heritage of the Western pioneers. Sleeping be- 
neath a cotton tent, or under the friendly roofs of the Appalachian 
Mountain Club huts, they soon learn that the joy of living is 
something more than a mere printed phrase. It is the essence 
of summer vacation enjoyment and experience in the White Moun- 
tains. 

Walking parties, small, large and medium-sized, as well as in- 
dividual trampers, are always to be encountered wherever one finds 
one's self in the Mountains; and not infrequently the visitor descend- 
ing Mt. Washington by the carriage-road meets a bevy of red-cheeked, 



bright-eyed maidens attired in bloomers, from some girls' camp, perhaps 
forty or fifty miles distant; or while the tourist is quietly enjoying the 
wonderful view from the summit of that lofty eminence, suddenly 
an imposing company of brown-clad youths will disturb his medita- 
tions by emerging from the Crawford trail and descending, half-famished, 
upon the restaurant installed in the fine new hotel. 

From Bretton Woods, Fabyan, Jefferson, Randolph, Gorham, 
Jackson, North Conway, Maplewood, Bethlehem, North Woodstock, 
and the rest of the Mountain centers glorious trail trips through valley 
and over summit radiate in every direction, some of them leading in a 
few minutes to prospects of which the Rockies themselves need not be 
ashamed. 

From North Woodstock, one may easily and quickly explore the 
interesting Pemigewasset and Franconia Notch region, including the 
famous Flume. About seven miles from North Woodstock, on the road 




The Pool, Franconia Notch 




Presidential Range from Intervale 



to Warren, is the spectacular Lost River Region, where the State has 
established a reservation, with a shelter, the use of which is free^ This 
territory is newly opened and well worth a trip to see. North Conway 
and Intervale offer tramping opportunities innumerable among the 
lower members of the Mountain colony, including Moat Mountain 
and Mt. Pequawket and several of the picturesque cascades and basins 

of the vicinity. 

From Jackson and the Crawford House, one may negotiate the 
Crawford and Pinkham Notches, with their rugged and beautiful 
scenery, and climb to some of the magnificent overlooks that have 
been placed there, balcony-like, by a prodigal Creator for the benefit 
of the twentieth-century tourist. 

Bretton Woods offers a wide variety of both long and short ex- 
cursions afoot, including such well-known places as Mt. Echo, Mt. 
Stickney, Mt. Pleasant, Mt. Willard, Mt. Webster, Mt. Deception, 
Ammonoosuc Falls, the Lakes of the Clouds and the various peaks of 
the Presidential Range, including Mt. Washington itself. 



From New Profile House, with its score of cosy cottages, the tourist 
may reach in comfort Echo Lake, Mt. Cannon, Mt. Lafayette, the Pool, 
the Flume and various other popular objectives of the summer visitor, 
invariably finding excellent roads and trails. 

Bethlehem and Maplewood, places of magnificent distances and 
smiling landscape, have breezy Mt. Agassiz. topped by an observation 
tower, from which the visitor may look out upon a scene of grandeur 
and enchantment, taking in large portions of northern New Hampshire, 
of Vermont, and even of parts of Canada. 

The habitues of Jefferson have always in their mind's eye a jaunt 
to Cherry Mountain, to the summit of Starr King, or to the top of 
Mt. Washington itself; and so at Gorham, Randolph, Whitefield, 
Dixville Notch, Holderness, Plymouth, Sugar Hill and the rest of the 
illustrious White Mountain list there is a variety of these always- 
enjoyable expeditions afoot to be enjoyed, their extent being limited 




Carnival at Bethlehem 




On the Summit, Mt. Washington 



only by physical conditions or weather or time. Different devotees 
of mountain climbing have their different ways of doing it. Some 
make it a rule to start before sunrise on their day's expedition; others 
prefer to delay till the cool of the afternoon. 

To mention but one of many enjoyable walking jaunts, it is possible 
for a party to leave Bretton Woods at 6 o'clock in the morning, ride 
to the base of Mt. Pleasant, and then begin their climb to the clouds. 
After reaching the summit of Mt. Washington over the fine trail, 
the crest of Mt. Jefferson may be negotiated by the Gulfside 
trail, the return being made by the Westside trail to Mt. Pleasant, 
thence down by the Franklin path, a total distance of about twenty-live 
miles. 

A record-breaking trip, covering every peak of the Presidential 
Range, was recently made by three men, a doctor, a lawyer and a 
minister, who tramped from Randolph to the Crawford House in a 
little more than seven hours, starting shortly before 8 in the morning 




Falls of Paradise, Lost River 



and reaching their destination about 3.15 in the afternoon. The 
summits of Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, 
Franklin, Pleasant and Clinton were crossed and a stop of about half 
an hour was made at the Tip-Top House on the summit of Mt. Wash- 
ington, where, with the blue Atlantic on one side of them and the Domin- 
ion of Canada on the other, they enjoyed lunch with the zest that is 
known only to mountain-climbers. 

When all other forms of outdoor enjoyment are exhausted (if 
such a thing could be possible in the Mountains), there still remains 
the historic pastime of fishing. The Saco and the Ammonoosuc and 
the numerous brooks that enter them, not to mention the Pemigewasset, 
abound in brook trout, and afford hours, and even days, of royal sport. 
There are many summer sojourners here who find their chief recreation 
in whipping the trout brooks of the mountain region, and seldom are 
they obliged to return home with empty creels. 




Golf Clubhouse, Dixville Notch 




On the Green 



Needless to say, the White Mountains are literally a paradise 
for the wielders of brush and pencil as well as for the devotees of art 
photography. The wonderful conformations, the marvelous atmos- 
phere, the gorgeous sunrise and sunset effects and the startling com- 
binations of cloud and mist make them a very wonderland of picture- 
esqueness. 

The region has been well described as Nature's mammoth museum. 
Of the many natural wonders, it is necessary here to refer to a few 
only. There is the wonderful Flume, in Franconia Notch, a great cleft 
in the mountain, 900 feet long and 60 to 70 feet high; its neighboring 
Pool and Basin, remarkable depressions filled with crystal water and 
amid most romantic surroundings; the world-famous "Old Man of the 
Mountains," stern and immovable sentinel of this entire region; White 
Horse Ledge, near North Conway and Intervale, so called on account 
of its fancied resemblance to a dashing steed; Lost River, at North 



Woodstock, and the remarkable Lakes of the Clouds, situated in a 
depression between Mt. Washington and Mt. Monroe, 5,000 feet above 
the sea. 

One of the greatest and most awe-inspiring of Nature's wonders 
is the Crawford Notch, up whose steep grades and between whose 
beetling cliffs the laboring train brings throngs of marveling tourists 
every day in summer. The Notch, named after one of the noted pioneer 
families of the region, is about 15 miles long and its western portal 
is 1,890 feet above the level of the ocean. In the 26 miles between 
North Conway and Crawford 1,380 feet of this elevation occurs, there 
being a rise of 116 feet to the mile for nine consecutive miles in its 
steepest portion. 

It was in the heart of the Crawford Notch that the members of 
the Willey family were destroyed by the historic landslide of August. 
1826. The site of this catastrophe is one of the landmarks of the region, 




Crawford, N. H., Gateway to Notch 




Pemigewasset River, Franconia 

and is visited by hundreds of tourists every year. The drive through 
the Notch is an obligation amounting almost to unwritten law on the 
part of vacationists sojourning at Crawford, Bretton Woods, Fabyan, 
Twin Mountain, Jackson and the Intervale-North Conway region. 
No White Mountain experience is more delightful. 

After every one of the White Mountain centers was given its due 
in printed and illustrated page (which would be quite impracticable 
from the guide-book point of view), they would all, figuratively speak- 
ing, still have to take off their hats to grand old Mt. Washington. As 
in the ancient days when the White Mountains were first revealed to 
the eyes of white men, this peak continues to be monarch of all it surveys, 
and that is a good deal, geographically speaking. 

From the summit of Mt. Washington, the radius of view is much 
more than one hundred miles, taking in the ocean, the New Hampshire 
lake country, the Connecticut River Valley, the Rangeley Lake country 



and to Mt. Katahdin in Maine, and reaching far into Vermont and 
Canada. This is one of the reasons why so many thousands of the 
world's people have been impelled to ascend to its breeze-swept summit 
during the last half century or so, princes, presidents and potentates 
among them. 

Like the Mountains in general, Mt. Washington is not quite to 
be described; it must be visited and studied on its own account. 

Every fine day in summer the famous cog-railway, with its pushing 
locomotives and inclining cars, is busy transporting visitors from all 
parts of the globe to the top of this famous mountain. 

The Mt. Washington Railway has been running since 1869, and 
in all these years not a passenger has been killed or injured. From 
the Base Station, the distance covered by the cog-railway is about 
three miles, and the average grade is 1,300 feet to the mile. At its 
greatest gradient it is nearly 2,000 feet to the mile. Its famous trestle, 




Base Station, Mt. Washington Railway 




Jacob's Ladder, Mt. Washington Ry. 



or "Jacob's Ladder," together with its peculiarly shaped locomotives, 
are familiar to millions of Americans who have never seen them, through 
the medium of printed illustrations and descriptions. 

Trains running over rails of standard gauge take the tourists 
from Fabyan and Bretton Woods to Base Station (both the Boston 
and Maine and Maine Central Railroads meeting at the former sta- 
tions), and at the Base the passengers change to the cog-railway, 
which conveys them to the summit by a slow yet all too rapid journey. 
The ever-changing panorama spread out before the eye of the 
ascending tourits, the differentiations of air and flora, the stop at the 
brink of the awesome Gulf, and the final disembarkation at the summit 
of the great eminence, nearly a mile and a quarter above the sea, form 
a series of kaleidoscopic impressions that can never be effaced from 
the memory. The tourist has the privilege of ascending several high 
mountains in America, but none of these bring quite the satisfactory 
results of a climb to the summit of Mt. Washington. 



Up here on the roof of New England has been erected the "New 
Station and Restaurant" to replace the old Summit House destroyed 
some years ago. Arriving at the summit by the cog-railway, one 
enters the New Station directly from the station platform, through 
an ample vestibule, into a large room, in the center of which is the 
office. At the right will be found the commodious dining room for 
eighty guests, while to the left is the lounging and rest room, fdled 
with comfortable chairs drawn up around a big, old-fashioned fire- 
place. Here, also, at the southern end, is the writing room, while along 
the west side is the souvenir stand, which always attracts so much 
attention on Mt. Washington. Up stairs there are eighteen guests' 
rooms, with twin beds, together with lavatories and bathrooms. The 
new building is in every way a credit to New Hampshire's grandest 
mountain. 

The patronage brought daily by the trains to this lofty hostelry 




g^!. , HWlipfifir 



The New Summit House 




Along the Gale River, Franconia Village 



is reinforced by the ever-moving contingent of mountain-climbers, of 
both sexes, who are constantly traveling the trails that connect the 
Presidential Peaks. 

The cloud pictures unfolded from this lofty point of vantage, 
when conditions are ripe, are simply superb; and there are times when 
the beholder finds it exceedingly difficult to believe that he is looking 
upon mist-billows and not upon those of the ocean. 

The original Tip-Top House, erected in 1853, was destroyed by 
fire in 1915. The stone walls and foundations, however, were not 
affected, and it was rebuilt in 1916. 

Sufficient time is permitted on the summit for a satisfactory view 
of the wonderful New England panorama and dinner in the Summit 
House before the train departs for the Base. Many tourists, in order 
to complete their White Mountain education and add a few more ex- 
periences to their vacation note-books, descend the Mountain by way 




• mwM 



\r/i. 







J 



Tip-Top House, Summit Mt. Washington, Labor Day, 1916 




Upper Falls of the Ammonoosuc River 




Mt. Jefferson from Stage Road 



of the carriage road on the west side. This is, indeed, an experience 
to go hand in hand with that of descending the steep California moun- 
tains behind a six-horse team. 

The stage ride down the Mountain gives the tourist an entirely 
different aspect of White Mountain scenery than the one he enjoyed com- 
ing up by train; and by the time the last steep section of the carriage 
road has been passed and he is well on his way through glorious 
Pinkham Notch, he is doubly glad he elected to return to his hotel 
this way. 

The homeward route affords him an opportunity to see pictur- 
esque Glen Ellis Falls and the pretty White Mountain resort, Jackson, 
with its tumbling Wildcat River, and brings him out to the railroad 
at Glen and Jackson station in time to ascend Crawford Notch at 
at an hour when it is in its most romantic mood. In all the 
world there is not a more inspiring, delightful, satisfying day's outing 
than this. 

The scenic charms of Jefferson, Randolph, Gorham and the north 




Glen Ellis Falls. Pinkham Notch 



side of the Mountains generally lose nothing of their impressiveness 
on closer acquaintance. Jefferson, with its growing Waumbek Colony, 
represents one of the highest types of the White Mountain vacation 
resort. It is a community of cottages as well as of lively hotel life, 
and the younger element in the summer tourist population seems to 
be peculiarly well represented here. The Waumbek golf links, already 
mentioned, rank among the highest in the region and are annually 
the scene of many an interesting tournament, participated in by noted 
experts. 

Starr King Mountain, lifting its massive proportions here, is one 
of the features of the landscape; and Cherry Mountain is another 
of Jefferson's prized possessions. The summer social life here is every- 
thing that could be desired, and there is no form of outdoor or indoor 
amusement common to the Mountains generally that cannot be en- 
joyed here, including trap shooting. There is a splendid livery and 
the highways are ideal. 




Cherry Mountain and the Waumbek Golf Links 






a 




m*i&&b^* 



Bridal Veil Cascade, Sugar Hill 




A Typical Mountain Road 



The delightful Randolph Valley, in which the town of Randolph 
nestles has an elevation of 1.200 feet above the sea and is hemmed 
m by Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison on the sonth and the Mt. Crescent 
Range on the north, the Carter Range lying i„ the foreground, to the 
east. Tins ,s another hay-fever-proof region. Randolph is connected 
with the sumnnt of Mt. Washington by two admirably constructed 
mountam paths, the benefaction of the late J. Rayner Edmunds. Other 
pa hs cad,atc from Randolph to some of the most attractive parts 
ol the Presidents Range section where the numerous mountain streams 
m the vicinity break into exquisite falls. It is a center that appeals 
T^Z W "° We ^ "" M " — — -d theloys 

Colebrook, situated about twenty-five miles southwest of the famous 
< """ecfcut lakes, source of the Connecticut River, is anZ 
popular tonnst center that may properly be classed among the White 
Mountain resorts. Ten miles beyond it lies romantic Di ville Notch 



with its splendid summer hotel. The Balsams, nestling at the side of 
lovely Lake Gloriette. Here is an ideal rest resort if ever there was 

The Dixville Mountains, in which is the romantic Notch of that 
name, are really a group apart from the White Mountains, and some 
forty miles distant from the Presidential Range. 

It is gratifying to all who love outdoor life that the tendency to 
lengthen the period of vacation in the Mountains increases year 1>> 
vear until now the season of autumnal foliage, crisper atmosphere 
and clearer horizons finds a constantly growing contingent still lingering 

at hotel and cottage. 

For it is then that the White Mountains fall under the spell ol 
the Great Painters, and grim Mt. Washington looks through the amber 
September or October haze upon a far-reaching harlequinade of rainbow 
hues. 




Dixville Notch 



There is nothing upon all this continent that can compare with 
the autumnal glory of the White Mountains. It can neither be de- 
scribed nor painted. No matter from what point of vantage the autum- 
nal foliage of the Mountains is viewed — whether from summit or 
valley — the spectacle is one that is beyond imagination. 

For many, the true vacation is now commencing. While others 
have gone back from seashore, lake or mountain to take up the tasks 
of business, those who love and understand the Mountains are on the 
way to their favorite haunts to spend the summer end in the most 
exhilarating and beneficial of outdoor pastimes — mountain-climbing, 
driving, golfing, fishing and shooting. 

The Crawford, Franconia, Pinkham, Dixville and Carter Notches 
lend themselves particularly to this marvelous display of color and 
contrast — for vivid, indeed, is the contrast between the brilliant colors 
of the maples and the somber green of the pines and firs. Fortunate 
is the visitor who can view the incomparable picture from each and 
all of these vantage points. Certainly, 

"There is a beautiful spirit breathing now, 
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees." 

Such are the wondrous White Mountains of New Hampshire! 




Clock Golf at Twin Mountain 



Altitude of White Mountains Resorts in Feet 



Ashland 

Bartlett 

Berlin 

Bethlehem 

Bretton Woods . . . 

Burleyville 

Campton 

Chocorua (Town) . 

Cole brook 

Connecticut Lakes 

Conway 

Crawford 

Dixville Notch . . . 

Fabyan 

Franconia 

Franconia Notch . . 

Gorham 

Holderness 

Intervale 

Jackson 



555 Jefferson 

680 Lancaster 

.013 Lincoln 

,470 Lisbon 

,620 Littleton 

670 Madison 

687 Maplewood 

550 New London .... 

,017 Newport 

,600 New Profile 

466 North Conway . . . 

,891 North Woodstock 

,831 Plymouth 

,580 Randolph 

990 Sandwich 

,911 Shelburne 

853 Sugar Hill 

475 Twin Mountain . . 

544 Wentworth 

757 Whitefield 



1,400 
887 

1,400 
557 
772 
478 

1,489 

1,531 
804 

1,911 
517 
739 
483 

1,203 
648 
701 

1,334 

1,450 
697 
952 



Altitude of Mountain Peaks in Feet 



Washington 6,290 

Adams 5,805 

Jefferson 5,725 

Clay 5,554 

Monroe 5,390 

Madison 5,380 

Lafayette 5,269 

Franklin 5,028 

Carter Dome 4,860 

Moosilauke 4,810 

North Twin 4,783 

Pleasant 4,775 

Carrigin 4,647 

Hancock 4,430 

Wildcat 4,415 

Osceola 4,352 

Field 4,300 

Clinton 4,275 



Willey 

Tripyramid 

Passaconaway 

Sandwich Dome 

Jackson 

Tecumseh 

Starr King 

Webster 

Deception 

Cherry 

Chocorua 

Pequawket 

Paugus 

North Moat Mountain 

Crawford 

Baldcap 

South Moat Mountain 
Agassiz 



4,261 
4,189 
4,116 
4,071 
4,012 
4,008 
3,919 
3,876 
3,700 
3,600 
3,508 
3,260 
3,248 
3.195 
3,101 
3,100 
2,760 
2,394 




Au Revoir 



A Vacation Library 

ISSUED BY 

Boston and Maine Railroad 

THE wonderfully attractive vacation 
places in Eastern and Northern New 
England are pictured and described in the 
series of booklets issued by the Passenger 
Traffic Department of the Boston and 
Maine Railroad. These books contain 
much helpful information for the vaca- 
tionist. 

Where to Stay in Vacation Land 

(Issued Annually) 

White Mountains of New Hampshire 
Along New England Shores 
Lake Winnipesaukee 
Lake Sunapee 

A copy of any publication in this list 
may be obtained by writing to the Passenger 
Traffic Department, North Station, Bos- 
ton, Mass. They may also be obtained at 
the City Ticket Office in New York, 171 
Broadway, and at the City Ticket Office in 
Boston, corner of Washington and Court 
Streets. 



7 







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